It’s time to out Lindsey Graham

BUMP: Now that Lindsey Graham is, as I write, whining about how helping gay couples in the immigration bill would someone make moral allegedly-heterosexual Christians like him vote for “gay marriage” – an absolutely ludicrous argument – I’m bumping this post, that was originally posted 11 days ago. (Also note that Diane Feinstein, Dick Durbin, and Chuck Schumer all defected to the GOP side on this, helping to kill UAFA, the gay immigration provision. And Democrats wonder why they lose when they up-front cave to GOP threats every time. I’ll be writing more on this later.)

It’s time to finally out Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Graham has had it coming for a while now. Not because he’s a Republican. But because he’s an anti-gay Republican. And while it’s one thing to be gay and a closet case, it’s quite another to be a hypocrite, an anti-gay gay, someone who uses his power to harm others in the name of morality, all the while knowing secretly that he is one of the others.

In this case, Graham’s hypocrisy that broke the camel’s back is immigration reform. I have it on good authority from someone intimately involved in the immigration reform process that Lindsey Graham is the central reason that the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA), which would help stop the forced deportation of foreign-born gay spouses, is being blocked from being added to the immigration bill. While other Senators might be bluffing about their opposition to addressing the immigration needs of gay binational couples in immigration reform, I’m told Graham isn’t bluffing.

The obvious question arises as to why Graham is holding gays hostage in the immigration bill.

One theory is that UAFA is Graham’s legislative beard. A beard is a woman a gay man socializes with in order to throw off suspicions that he’s actually gay. In this case, the theory goes, Lindsey Graham is using UAFA in order to throw off the suspicions of the Tea Party voters back home who are challenging him in a high-profile primary. Their suspicions are that: A) Graham is a liberal; and B) he’s gay.

Graham’s support for immigration reform is hardly helping him dispel the closet liberal image. But his opposition to UAFA, the theory goes, is a two-fer: It let’s Graham oppose something, anything, related to immigration reform (his support for the measure has been a thorn in his side with the far-right back home), and it has the added benefit of bashing gays. Everyone knows that a closeted gay man wouldn’t bash his own people, right? So bashing UAFA “proves” that Graham is straight.

If Lindsey Graham thinks an open discussion about the evils of homosexuality is necessary to further our country’s, or his own, best interests, then let’s have at it.

Lindsey Graham voted against the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, because he believed that gays should not be serving in the US military. Yet Lindsey Graham himself is a colonel in the Air Force Reserves. If Lindsey Graham thinks gay are unfit to serve in the US military, and he were in fact gay, then he’d be unfit to serve in the US military by his own definition, would know it, but would still be serving in spite of that knowledge. That would make Graham a hypocrite, a liar, or both. (And let’s not even talk about the security risk people with dire secrets, and Senatorial security clearances, pose.)

The question facing us is not whether you or I think Lindsey Graham’s sexual orientation is relevant to a public policy debate. The question confronting us is whether Lindsey Graham thinks one’s sexual orientation is relevant, and he does. So by the Graham Standard, America deserves to know if Air Force Reserve Colonel Lindsey Graham is gay.

Lindsey Graham celebrating the anti-gay Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day.

And the same goes for Graham’s position on UAFA.

And it’s not just those two issues. Graham has been terrible on gay issues for years. In the last three Congresses, the Human Rights Campaign scorecard gives him a 0, a 13, and a 15 out of 100. Graham also famously participated in Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, in order to show solidarity with the chicken-chain’s anti-gay views.

Graham is a queer duck. He’s what I like to call a closet heterosexual: Somehow who avers to being straight, but does so in such a diminutive, and odd, manner so as to lack all credibility.

Straight people aren’t normally shy about being straight. Usually, they don’t even realize the degree to which they “flaunt” their heterosexuality. They bring dates to public events, go on vacations with their significant other, and more generally have a public record of people they’ve gone out with. Everyone does, gay or straight. So you start to ask questions when you find someone like Lindsey Graham, who’s 57 years old and says he’s straight, but for whom the entirety of his Wikipedia “Personal Life” section reads:

Graham has never married.

It makes a girl wonder.

I don’t know if Lindsey Graham is gay. But I’m having a difficult time believing that he’s straight (and I’m clearly not the only one). And what’s more, he seems to be having a difficult time proving it, or even explaining it. Even Graham’s full-throated denial came off to many as incredibly gay:

During a South Carolina Tea Party rally this spring, one speaker created an uproar by postulating that Graham supported a guest-worker program out of fear that the Democrats might otherwise expose his homosexuality. (Graham smirked when I brought this up. “Like maybe I’m having a clandestine affair with Ricky Martin,” he said. “I know it’s really gonna upset a lot of gay men — I’m sure hundreds of ’em are gonna be jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge — but I ain’t available. I ain’t gay. Sorry.”)

Lindsey Graham decided long ago that one’s sexual orientation was fair game for politics, then so be it. It’s time someone did an in-depth investigation of whether Lindsey Graham is gay, straight, or asexual, because under the Graham Standard, America has a right to know.

If Lindsey Graham wants to make his primary about being gay, then it’s time to click his heels three times and give him his wish.

John AravosisFollow me on Twitter: @aravosis | @americablog | @americabloggay | Facebook | Instagram | Google+ | LinkedIn. John Aravosis is the Executive Editor of AMERICAblog, which he founded in 2004. He has a joint law degree (JD) and masters in Foreign Service from Georgetown; and has worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, the United Nations Development Programme, and as a stringer for the Economist. He is a frequent TV pundit, having appeared on the O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline, AM Joy & Reliable Sources, among others. John lives in Washington, DC. John's article archive.

Not only is Lindsey (a girl’s name, btw) Graham gay but is so obviously in love with John McCain, it’s undeniable. Am I the only one that notices this? I mean, they finish each others sentences for christ’s sake! I know John McCain is married so he’d be the top, most assuredly, but let there be no doubt, Lindsey Graham is a total bottom!

Wrong, the union army barricaded itself in the fort, loaded and turned it’s guns point blank on the city. go there and read in the museum what led up to the war, the whisky tax, banning direct trade with France with the South, having to sell cotton north for nothing, and buy overpriced crappy brandy from the North, instead of getting fair prices and trade for Congnac. Just like Washington today, sucking dollars from our pocked once again.

Gayer than a hatbox full of birds! Makes Rip Taylor seem manly. Please. Miz Pitty-Pat must surely prepare the fainting-couch for this one. Break out the smelling-salts! This, I do declare, will be delicious!!

Somewhere over the rainbow Graham is out gathering nuts in May,doning now his gay apparel.Its only a matter of time…
I’ll never quite understand people like him or gay repubicans. Greed must truly be a powerful force

The goal should be to have him win his primary; and THEN out him. It’s the only (very slim) chance to pick up that seat. Sanford is proof SC voters will “swallow” anything the wingnuts tell them.. Otherwise, we get just another Teabagger Senator.

Of course not. It’s quite possible that he could be a straight lifelong bachelor who has never slept with any women that anyone knows of. Lots of guys like that, right? I won’t believe Miss Lindsey is straight unless I see him in a straight sex tape without the help of Viagra! And no fluffing either. It has to pop up all on it’s own at first sight without any assistance.

Three years ago gay blogger Mike Rogers hinted that he was about to out Lindsey Graham, tweeting that he had a long talk with someone who claimed to have slept with Graham and that he was convinced the guy was telling the truth based on the details he provided. He even said he had set up an appointment to talk to his lawyer, something he always does before he publicly outs someone. Later he posted that he wasn’t outing Graham because he needed more proof first. Based on his past public outings it looks like he always gets at least three independent informants, who don’t know each other, who can provide intimate details about their encounters with the person in question before his lawyer approves going public.

In July 2010, Rogers posted, “I’m not outing him, even though everyone knows he’s a big queen.”

You might remember that it was Rogers who first outed Ed Schrock, David Drier, James McCreary, Mark Foley, Mark Kirk and Larry Craig, as well as a bunch of anti-gay, far-right fundies like Lee LaHaye and John Schlafley, as well as broadcaster Armstrong Williams. Not a single one of the people Rogers outed as ever put up a successful defense against the outing. Sure, guys like Ed Koch always insisted they were straight but everyone knew better anyway so it was no big deal.

What we really need is to out both Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell at the same time, and we could throw in Orin Hatch and Rick Perry for good measure.

“Now that Lindsey Graham is, as I write, whining about how helping gay couples in the immigration bill would someone make moral allegedly-heterosexual Christians like him vote for ‘gay marriage’ – an absolutely ludicrous argument – I’m bumping this post, that was originally posted 11 days ago.”

Someone from his past needs to step out of the shadows and expose him. Is he that powerful that they would feel their life is not safe and that he would go that far to get rid of that person to keep his safe from being exposed? Perhaps. Perhaps his finances should be checked to see if “Miss Pittypat” is paying someone to keep their mouth shut. Does he have a number of these people under his “employ” and they are keeping their mouths shut by pretending to be doing jobs for him or whatever it is to disguise the fact that he has had physical relations with them in the past and present? This would be the way to determine whether he has something going or not. Would he be so foolish to have a bunch of men in his employ and hardly any women? Would the women start talking?

I would like to see one of his contracts to be able to work under his employ to see if there are any rules stipulating nothing is to be shared with the press or any one, even after one is terminated. If he has been in office this long and no one has exposed him, he has something going that is keeping their mouths shut. Money, serious threats or something to keep them loyal but it has to be something. Get them to break from him and you will have a huge scandal and he will be out of a job faster than Mitt Romney’s election.

I believe the operative words in your post are, “I don’t know if he is gay”. In that case, this post is just a way of venting your anger at him. Not that your anger isn’t justified but I don’t think personal attacks based on nothing but ‘I’m finding hard to believe…..’ really help. If anything, being personally attacked by the gay activist community is likely to help him politically given the area he represents. Don’t you think?

There’s also something wrong with harassing a straight man by saying he’s gay because he’s unmarried and because of his mannerisms. In the absence of actual proof that’s what we have to assume is going on. If a former boyfriend came forward it would be a different story altogether.

If we were capable of taking down Republicans of the hypocrisy of Graham and David Dreier the Democrats would be a lot less likely to cave. It has to be made totally clear that living a secret gay life while undermining gay equality loses a politician, judge, political flack or journalist wins them immediate and continual outing. They’ve been playing the stupid scruple against outing traitors to other GLBT folks for everything they can, people in the media have to be made aware that it is not cool to cover up for them, as they all do.

Betraying the people you have sex with deserves a political bobbitting, figuratively, not physically.

I still say this whole thing is an Obama first term flash back when the Democrats on BOTH ends of Pennsylvania Ave, folded like a cheap card table when ever the big bad Republicans threaten to be mean to them. Dianne Feinstein owes her very political existence to the LGBT Community and stabbed us in the back without even a second thought, Self loathing closet case Miss Lindsey Graham must be laughing pretty hard right now.
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The fact is, I truly believe that had the Democrats closed ranks and held firm on UAFA and called the GOP’s bluff, it’s the republicans who would have caved. There is no way Boehner and McConnell where going to let the GOP get blamed for killing immigration reform, they need it too much so they can try to convince Latinos and Asians they don’t really hate them. The Democrats should have forced the GOP to publicly vote to choose between national electoral survival and their own bigotry.

Instead it was our supposed friends who turned out to be spineless cowards on this. And sorry, but to those who keep saying we need to “see the big picture”… How easy that is to say, when you are not the ones forced to live in exile or forced into a long distance relationship simply because your own Government is determined to tax you as a full citizen but treat you as anything but. How ironic the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and their families now lie in the hands of one swing vote on the United States Supreme Court.

Frankly, the biggest irony is that this “grand compromise” on Immigration reform most likely won’t ever get to the President’s Desk. GOP trolls will NEVER support any bill that gives undocumented aliens a path to legitimacy, they will kill the bill saying it doesn’t provide enough border security. Enabling them to dodge the blame for failing to pass it. At the end of the day, this entire exercise will have been yet another clear message to Republicans on how Democrats will cave at the slightest pressure.

The sad thing is that there are people who know — just as there were people who knew that Roy Cohn was gay. Cohn hung out in P’Town, for heaven’s sake, and a lot of powerful people knew he was gay. But they protected him. If you’re a member of the power elite, you will be protected. A friend of mine was invited to a party at the home of a political fundraiser. Despite funding anti-gay politicians, the guy hosting the party had two 19-year-old Thai “houseboys.”

California has its own Lindsey double dealer in Diane Feinstein, whose history of animosity toward the GLTB communities, has culminated in her support of exclusion for GLTB couple immigrants in the Bill.

Can’t we just argue based on his political views instead of intruding into his private life. I don’t care if he is gay or straight it just seems like once you go down that road and you start investigating someone’s private life, you lose credibility because you are not arguing based on the strength of your position and playing dirty politics.

It might give you some personal satisfaction to turn over every rock in some person’s life who you dislike but it weakens your political position to hit below the belt. Take the high road or you lose any moral high ground you might have. Plus, you open yourself to similar scrutiny.

First I’ll say that it is possible to be 50+ and not have been married. I have a friend who is 56 and never married. He’s had some short term relationships and I’ve know him for over 40 years and he is not gay. It’s basically his personality and not his sexuality that keeps him from being married.

Now as to Graham, I think he is fair game and should be outed if he is gay. I believe that every damn homophobe should be outed. I had a manager who was a homophobe. I knew people whose ‘gaydar’ went off when around this manager.

All politicians that can negatively affect the lives of others by trying to hide their own fears need to pay the piper.

another approach: he’s never been married. he follows the Bible, right? Therefore: he’s a virgin. He’s how old? And he has never felt the hot breath of a lover (of either gender?) tickling between his shoulderblades, senses tingling? I want to see his high school yearbook.

Chuck Schumer was kissing Graham Lindsey’s ass by asking Pat Leahy to drop the inclusion of same-sex couples in the immigration bill. Obama’s job was to ask Schumer to support Leahy’s provision. Obama failed to do his job. Instead of siding with Leahy, Obama sided with Schumer and asked Leahy to drop the inclusion of same-sex couples in the bill. (Here’s the link from CBS News.) This really makes everyone concerned look bad. I only mention this on this thread, John, because you say that you’ll be writing more about it later.

Hey, speaking of closeted gay South Carolina Republicans, whatever happened to their gay lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer? I know the South Carolina GOP was in a pickle when their governor was caught hiking the Appalachian Trail in Argentina because if he left office early, they would end up with a gay governor.

I just google Andre and guess what? He has a Facebook page and he even posted what is most likely his shirtless Guys With I-phones pic. You have to check this out for yourself. You can get any gayer than that! https://www.facebook.com/Andre.Bauer.SC

He could have suffered from mental illness. Some are speculating that he had confidential information from his doctors that he was suffering from a terminal illness, in which case, he knew that he had little time left to live anyway.

A 78-year-old man has killed himself inside the cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in the French capital, police say, causing its evacuation.

The man pulled out a shot-gun and shot himself through the mouth beside the main altar shortly after 16:00 (14:00 GMT). He has been named as Dominique Venner, an award-winning far-right historian. Mr Venner had recently been involved in the campaign against the government’s decision to legalise gay marriage.

This sounds to be like a man with a long history of mental health issues, not to mention highly questionable allegiances, including membership in the OAS, which opposed Algerian independence and tried to assassinate De Gaule. What I found fascinating was from an essay he wrote (quoted over on Joe.My.God) win which he seemed to be claiming that a reason for opposing marriage equality was because French Islamists would overturn it anyway in about 15 years.

He’s right John. The last time you wrote this piece I was expecting some kind of revelations, or at least concrete rumours, but they never came. Are you just trawling for dirt, hoping somebody has detailed information about gay sexual or romantic activity by Graham?

Some people are actually proud of their family. My wife and I have been happily married for almost 35 years and still love each other deeply. And, our grown children actually enjoy coming home to visit. I considered myself very blessed to have a family that genuinely loves and cares for each other.

And then Vitter got re-elected. BTW, I live one state over from Vitter’s home turf and I never encounter a Republican who knows anything about any of that. Maybe Fox News never covered it because that at Wing Nut Daily are the only news sources they trust.

We should try and nail it shut before he has a chance to open it. I want to hear that pathetic bastard screaming on the other side for us to please let him out! Not a chance if I had anything to do with it. He’s hurt too many people.

That doesn’t excuse him from signing it. Also, he ran radio ads in 1996 in the south BRAGGING about signing DOMA. that hardly sounds like he had his hands tied. Bill Clinton is a scumbag. I knew that from living in Arkansas and voted for him in 92 and 96 anyway. I had my eyes wide open.

Also as a young person at the time I didn’t view marriage as old-fashioned or irrelevant. I just didn’t see it as a possibility.

Please stop excusing Bill Clinton for DOMA. It’s absurd. He was wrong. He signed a bill he knew full well was unconstitutional. He did it because it was politically advantageous for him to do so. That’s the only reason. I’m not trying to make him sound worse than he is. He did things that I liked too. But stop making him out as this crusader for gay rights. It’s just a lie.

can anybody get ahold of this creeps private cell phone records? I dated a guy who looks an awful lot like him, but he said his name was Bill! … or was it John? … or was it Tom? Oh hell, I can’t remember!

I keep having flashbacks to Sen. Graham’s oratory during the Senatorial “Monicagate” hearings against then Pres. Bill Clinton. And I quote …”Where I come from, if you’re on the phone at three a..m., you’re up to no good!”

3) Democrats think that Graham’s a RINO, but is now also a DINO because he sold them out too.

4) Libertarians think Graham sold them out preferring executions by drones over Rand Paul’s filibuster.

5) Civil Rights Activists think Graham sold them out with Graham’s NDAA, his drone executions, ObamaCare executions by government sanctioned euthanasia, GITMO Bay, Torturing POWs, and extreme rendition (picking up people off the street and take them to GITMO Bay or an Afghanistan Prison).

The only people that Graham has not turned against are the 57 Hitler Like Dictators in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Graham created Hitler Like Dictatorships in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Egypt by adding Sharia Law to their constitutions. Now Graham wants Sharia Law in the constitutions of Syria and Iran.

Islam is a religion protected by our civil right to freedom of religion up to the point where Islamic Law is added to the constitution of any country. Then Sharia Law or Islamic Law, once added to any country’s constitution, will convert any government into a Hitler Like Dictatorship.

Thanks dear. I have two bright lines, both of which are easily identifiable:

1. Does this person believe it is immoral to be a non-celibate gay person, that self-accepting gay people are all going to Hell? If the answer is yes, they’re a hater.

2. Does this person express the opinion that being gay is a “choice” or a “lifestyle”? If the answer is yes, they’re a science-denying bigot.

Oh, and one more, a line which Keith did not cross, so I have to give him a little credit: 3. If they think gay people are all mostly pedophiles, and that it’s dangerous to allow children to be around us? That makes them an ignorant homophobe.

Obama was pro-gay when he was still a senator. The reason he didn’t push more for gay rights in his first term was for purely political reasons. It didn’t come from the same place as the Republican anti-gay actions. Yeah, there were some questionable decisions like continuing to defend DOMA with very offensive arguments but once he got re-elected and couldn’t be harmed anymore he changed that.

Among the 29 states where it is legal to fire someone because of real or perceived sexual orientation is South Carolina. Certainly there are a lot of people who perceive Lindsay Graham as being at least surreptitiously gay. And Southern Republicans are no strangers to “push polling.” So ….

Of course he’s gay and I can’t stand him but at least he said publicly that he hopes the Supreme Court will recognize a “constitutional right to marriage equality” when it rules on the issue in June. He said that last month in an interview with NBC affiliate WYFF in Greenville, SC. That makes him the third Republican senator to announce support for gay marriage, following Rob Portman, whose son is gay, and Mark Kirk, who may be gay himself.

I was rather surprised that Graham would support marriage equality but his explanation was enough to make you want to puke. It was also rather revealing. “I think it’s a human rights issue,” Graham told WYFF anchor Bruce Nolan. “Some people, they just have urges. And they can’t help it. They don’t choose it. Maybe they don’t even want other people to know about it.”

Miss Lindsey as I call him has never offered any proof of himself being straight.
NO females seen dating him but he loves to hang out with Sen. John McCain.
He acts like a flamer guy who flirts shyly with McCain perhaps wishing they could
be together as lovers. Perhaps he is too closeted to engage in any romance.

Why can’t we just use the same standard of proof on Mr. Graham as the Republicans use on Obama accusing him of being a Muslim terrorist? It’s simply the fact that they want to believe it so badly it doesn’t matter if it’s true.

“I realize that this might sound a lot like Clinton’s “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” Yep, I also found that absolutely fascinating. I just assumed Clinton was in touch with his inner Hegel.

It’s called using the Republican standard of proof. You don’t need evidence. You just have to believe it, and keep hammering it over and over to anyone who will let you. While I don’t generally agree with stooping to their level, Graham has been digging his own hole for a long, long time. It isn’t possible to have a rational discussion with the man, so people have to resort to more absurd measures.

dude get a dam life! you say its time to out him yet you have no tangible evidence that he’s gay…. write something that is more news worthy!!! Granted the man is a hateful bigot I’ll give you that. The rest of this article is nothing more than Junior High School Gossip you would hear from the girls in the cafeteria at lunch….. GROW UP!!! How Old are you 12??

If there is proof beyond any doubt that he is gay, then I agree with outing him. If not, I am opposed. However, being unmarried is no more proof that one is gay than is being married a guarantee of being straight.

FINALLY someone is talking about outing that closeted asshat. I really think the people of South Carolina or whatever godforsaken southern stupid racist state she represents are total douche bags but when the douche spills over on the rest of us, we have to say enough already!

truly the idiotic blabbering of a person who feels so insecure about their own identity they must whore out what I must presume is their own family (or perhaps a “found” picture frame family photo) in your avatar.

to mr. turner: you really should be ashamed of yourself. I’m sure those other people in your avatar pic didn’t choose to have you post your nonsense under their image. Shame on you.

As far as I’m concerned, if you believe I’m going to burn forever in Hell after I die for no other reason than because I’ve unrepentantly spent the last decade and a half married to another woman in a loving, monogamous, romantic relationship, that makes you a hater. And after all of the scientific evidence concluding that sexual orientation and gender identity are not ‘behavior’ or ‘lifestyle choices,’ you continue to assert that’s all it is, and that it is immoral to be openly gay and to have relationships, in my opinion this also makes you a fact-denying bigot.

And no, I’m not going to opt for celibacy because some ignorant bronze-age yahoos decided their particular cultural imperatives were ordained directly by an all-powerful supreme deity whose existence cannot be proven, but whose presumed irrefutable authority continues to be borrowed on a daily basis for whatever morally hypocritical judgments and vindictiveness one people wish to impose on others.

By the way, I’m assuming your avatar photo is your family. Lovely, they look like, and may Goddess bless all of you. Unfortunately, by Biblical edicts and standards, y’all are failing to cover your heads, the womenfolk are dressed like hussies and your menfolk are clearly breaking the rules about shaving and hair-cutting. These unambiguous rules are in the very same sections of the Bible you folks keep citing to oppress us.

Unlike sexual orientation and gender identity, clothing and hair-cutting/shaving are very much lifestyle choices. So is bigotry.

Not really. All you really need is a good whisper campaign. Take notes from Lee Atwater and Karl Rove and slip handouts under windshield wipers in his home state. Something really twisted like “he doth protest too much” should start things rolling…

It doesn’t sound ‘butch’ to me, it sounds evasive; it sounds, to me, like a feint. If he’d said: ” – but I’m not available. I’m not gay. I’m Sorry.”, it would’ve sounded a lot more definitive – especially after he’d used ‘gonna’ and ‘ ’em ‘ in his preceding sentences.

In situations like this, I always try to imagine myself in the same spot and what I might be thinking and feeling like while undergoing it. Somebody held Graham’s feet to the fire and he danced his way out of it with casual, deflecting – and disarming – language. Opening his statement with the ‘improper’ “Like maybe” and closing it with “Sorry”, instead of “I’m sorry.” only underscores, for me, that he felt threatened enough to pretend that he wasn’t threatened.

I realize that this might sound a lot like Clinton’s “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” – but language and the words we choose to use, are important. Graham didn’t get to where he is in his career by being careless of that.

Yes, you really need proof! The right wingers love it when we point fingers and say… he’s one of us …. but we really don’t know for sure, but we think he is. It seems ridiculous to me to do that without being able to prove it…. we’re just bitching because we don’t like the way he voted or didn’t vote….. saying he is homosexual without offering proof plays right into the right wingers hands….

I tried to have that discussion with someone last week… and all I learned was that some Republicans are actually so deluded as to think they are still the party of Lincoln. That the current party should be given all the credit for what was done then, and everyone should just ignore what they’re doing now.

Who said it was okay for Clinton to sign DOMA? I haven’t. And I haven’t forgiven him for it either. What does that have to do with Graham. Bill Clinton isn’t running for anything and isn’t holding office.

i respectfully disagree, thats what the cons do, straight or gay, black or white, ying or yang, if he’s gay may make him a coward but basing ones opinion on sexual orientation is a form of bigotry and i as a liberal refuse to go there, again i respectfully disagree.

Mike Rogers has hinted at it. I have too. But does anyone actually have the smoking gun (i.e. affidavit from the ex lover) that would be needed to actually out him. My gaydar going off isn’t going to be enough. We need something substantive.

I think that might be a “virus” someone planted on your computer, not ads from this site. I had the same thing happen to me…I couldn’t read half an article because the ads were covering them up.

I forgot whether it was a website or program name that I found in very small print somewhere on the ad. If it’s a website you just have to go there and opt out. If it’s a program, you have to find it and delete it. It’s nothing complicated that requires a pro to come and fix. Sorry I can’t remember whether it was a website or program.

Barack Obama has never supported, pushed, promoted, or signed any anti-gay legislation in his 50+ years on this planet. So quit that crap. As for Clinton, he tried his damndest to end anti-gay discrimination in the military, but was pushed into a corner to support the execrable DADT as a compromise. As for DOMA, it was the Republican Congress that pushed it in 1996 a few months before the election to essentially make it an election year issue.

Read my comment above, Keith. Dems sometimes waffle on gay rights, and Republicans hate us. So yeah, you’re right, Dems aren’t perfect, but Republicans hate us, and harm us on a regular basis. So you still lose the argument. If you really think the reason that gays, women, blacks, latinos and a lot of other people no longer vote republican, is simply because they dont’ ‘get’ it, then maybe it’s you who don’t get it.

Oh god are we seriously going to play this game again? Yes, Bill Clinton was against gay marriage in 1996, Lindsey Graham is against it in 2013. And all but 3 Democrats in the Senate are for gay marriage in 2013, but 99% of GOP Senators are against it. The Republicans hate us, the Democrats like us, tolerate us, sometimes still get the ickies. One is not perfect, the other hates us. What is your point exactly, that both parties are the same? Are you high? Bill Clinton sucked on DOMA, and f’d up DADT. He also was the first presidential candiate to court our vote, to appoint high level openly gay people to his administration, to have an openly gay hiv positive person speak during prime time at the convention, to have the first openly gay ambassador and more. So yeah, maybe Clinton get a 60% or a 70% on gay issues in the freaking 1990s. Your boy Mitt Romney, 20 years later, would still have gotten a 10% at best. So I’m sorry, but enough of the false equivalencies.

Without any evidence that Lindsey Graham is gay, heterosexual or asexual I can only assume that Lindsey Graham is a sandlapping dandy and a cheap political whore. If someone has some evidence that he is gay, straight or asexual I would love to see it. I would also love to publicize that evidence. So let’s dig it up.

Sorry, Mr. Chik-Fil-A, our problem is with self-loathing closet cases who hurt the gay community in order to hide their sexual orientation. Many of us are not great Obama fans, and Bill Clinton gets a lot of criticism for DOMA. We couldn’t call either of them self-loathing, because they are straight, and they didn’t have to include their family picture in their avatars to prove they are straight. Your definition of a hater is obviously much different than my definition.

I’m going to refrain from the usual ‘queer as a three dollar bill” and “Miss Lindsey” jokes, and simply state that if the evidence can be found, yes, he should be outed.

But that’s the problem, isn’t it? We need evidence beyond our collective gaydars which have done exploded and are in pieces on the floor. We also know well the usual pathology of the self-loathing closet cases, who invariably project that loathing onto everybody else, especially anyone who hasn’t made the same choice to be ashamed of his sexual orientation. (I suspect this shame is also held onto in part because being forbidden and naughty, that makes the compulsive forays in anonymous gay sex that much more exciting.) Nothing new here in terms of the usual pattern.

But not every heterosexual or asexual person needs repressed gayness as the sole reason to be a homophobic bigot.

Given Graham’s obvious total antipathy towards LGBT civil rights, and the fact he has the power as an elected Senator to ensure those rights are withheld, by all means if he’s secretly gay, he should be outed. If he is, and he’s not celibate or doesn’t limit himself to jacking off to Abercrombie & Fitch catalogs, there’s evidence to be found. Men who’ve slept with him, escorts hired, or possibly even people who’ve seen him buying gay porn.

Follow the comments in this blog and you will see all the name-calling and “put downs” against Lindsey Graham and Republicans. Yet, you so quickly forget that it was Democrats like President Bill Clinton and President Barrack Obama that held the same beliefs. Were they “anti-gay bigots”, “A-holes”, “twerps”, “self-loathing hypocrites”, “closet Gays”, etc.?
It is so easy to find a “whipping boy” and resort to name-calling and “put downs” to try and advance your cause, but it is important to realize that everyone who disagrees with same-sex marriage and homosexual behavior/lifestyle is not a hater. They simply disagree. That’s all. Don’t blow it out of proportion with all the name-calling, etc.

It was Democratic President Bill Clinton, along with both houses of Congress
in 1996 that voted and signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)
defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman. And, it was
Democratic President Barack Obama that affirmed the same when running for
Senator in 2004 when he stated, “I’m Christian. I do believe that
tradition and my religious beliefs say that marriage is something sanctified
between a man and a woman.” Later, he reaffirmed the same belief in 2006,
and when running for president in 2008.

I think Lindsay Graham is a republican twerp, for sure, but unless you have some concrete proof that he is gay it just sounds like a bunch of carping and only gives the right wing a meme against gays for attacking them. If Graham is gay he should be outed, but just saying he is gay without proof doesn’t mean a whole lot to the right wingers he courts..

It could be even worse, he could be so self-loathing and shameful that he simply doesn’t “act” on his preference…you know like a good X-tian…love the sinner hate the sin. And you are aware that gay people that don’t act on their gayness and live celibate lives are okay in their book. I suspect he is a virgin watcher.

When I resided in St. Augustine, Florida, many years ago I remember one day talking to some person
who said are You the Gay guy who owns a coffee shop and art gallery near the old fort? I said I am
the manager/owner. Did not realize till then that persons in town whispered about me being Gay.
Anyway it hurt my business in some ways since anti-Gay bigots in town disliked me, but lots of college
students and liberals were avid customers.

MIss Lindsey Graham is a self-loathing closeted homosexual. (I tried to post something more about him

but my comment was rejected.) I live next door to SC in Georgia where GOPers have to remain closeted too. I reside nearby to Atlanta where Gays like me are tolerated, but outside Atlanta in rest of Georgia being openly Gay kind of risky. Anyway Gay GOPers like Lindsey need to be outed.

He reminds me of Leslie Jordan who played Beverly Leslie on Will and Grace , the closeted Republican Millionaire. The sad part is if he is tossed out of South Carolina they will probably elect another moron like DeMint. It’s too bad he can’t be who he really is…I had a cousin who evervone said was asexual. When he retired he introduced us to his boyfriend who wasn’t asexual either.

Back in the day, when gay life was underground, we used a lot of code words to communicate so straights couldn’t understand. There was a woman named Dorothy in NYC who was kind of a fag hag. She would hold parties and invite gay men in order to introduce them to each other. Later, men would meet someone, perhaps in a bar or at church or at work, and could ask “Aren’t you a friend of Dorothy’s?” It was a safe question and only another gay man would know what you were asking. Then it started being applied to third parties, “Oh him, he’s a friend of Dorothy’s.” It was a way of saying someone else was gay without fear of being overheard. In my circle, not in NYC, we had other code words. “Don’t you think he smiles a little too much” was one way of asking if someone was gay.

That whole Ricky Martin remark is extremely interesting. Ricky Martin is hot and he is recently out, but he’s not what you call an icon of the gay community. A psychotherapist would have a field day trying to get to the bottom of why, out of all the notable gays who have been in the pubic eye for years, he picked Ricky Martin. If he had said Elton John or someone like that, it would be unremarkable, but to say Ricky Martin makes me think that he’s had a few “impure thoughts” about him and Ricky Martin.

Indeed! I’ve never looked into it myself and made the facile assumption. I picked up the phrase from my first boyfriend and I’m pretty sure he went with the Dorothy Gale interpretation too. (By the way, amusingly, he was born in Kansas to a mom named Dorothy.)

Gah! That puts me off my food.
I’m guessing that if it did “come out”, so to speak, Graham would play the ex-gay card, apologize for being a sinner and claim to have been restored to true health and heterosexuality by the power of Christ. That would buy him another few years, at least until the first report of a covert tryst in a men’s room.

I thought that only counted if they were straight adulterers and straight whore-mongers. Gay is a whole different country. Unless they pat him on the back and say, “At least he didn’t shove it down our throats!”

So, John, being a Washington insider you should be able to find the venue for Lindsay to meet a humpy volunteer who is willing to take a hit for the team. Just make sure he remembers to charge the battery on his cell phone (high resolution, please).

Apropos of absolutely nothing, I’ve wondered how many of the younger gay men out there are any longer influenced by the same kind of Hollywood iconography that I picked up when I was younger: being a “friend of Dorothy”, admiring tough Hollywood dames like Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead, and so forth. I’m kind of young for it myself but I’ve long had a fondness for Hollywood classics. My partner’s nine years younger than I; I once lamented to him that kids these days were going to forget who Judy Garland was, and he said something like, “Good.” >_<

South Carolina voters don’t care whether Graham is gay in the same way they don’t care that Mark Sanford is a creepy, philandering sociopath or that Strom Thurmond was a staunch bigot with a Black mistress and Black children on the side.

In other words, South Carolina voters are just fine with someone who is a liar who is willing to harm others for their own personal gain. If Lindsey Graham is outed, it probably won’t make any difference – South Carolina voters have a natural affinity with politicians that are abusive, self centered asses.

I agree. If he’s willing to abuse his position by endorsing and enabling discrimination against gay people, we have every right to expose him as one of the folks he’s demonizing. People like that sicken me.